Tehran: Iran warned on Thursday that it will quit a landmark nuclear deal with world powers if President Donald Trump pulls the United States out of the accord.
“If the United States withdraws from the nuclear deal, then we will not stay in it,” Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying by the state television website.
Trump has threatened to abandon the agreement when it comes up for renewal on May 12, calling it “insane”.
Velayati warned against any move to try to renegotiate the deal signed by Iran and six world powers in 2015 curbing Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.
“Iran accepts the nuclear agreement as it has been prepared and will not accept adding or removing anything,” he said.
“Even if countries allied with the United States, especially the Europeans, seek to revise the nuclear agreement... one of our options will be withdrawing from the accord,” Velayati added.
Britain, France and Germany - the three European countries that signed the deal - have repeatedly tried to persuade Trump not to abandon it.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Thursday against scrapping the deal unless there was a good alternative in place.
“If one day there is a better agreement to replace it it’s fine, but we should not scrap it unless we have a good alternative,” Guterres said in an interview with BBC Radio 4.
“I understand the concerns of some countries in relation to the Iranian influence in other countries of the region. So I think we should separate things.”
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday reiterated his commitment to the accord but admitted that it needed strengthening.
